Saturday, September 02, 2017

Goldfinger (1964)

Beefing on Bond

Goldfinger

Being among the few people in the world who had never actually seen the classic Bond film Goldfinger, my only actual understanding of it was that it is basically the "epitome" of James Bond movies... That it essentially paved the way for what people (such as myself) understand a "James Bond movie" to be.

I can say now, having seen the film, that it did not fail to deliver that one bit. It had all the elements I expected it to have: a swaggering and charming Sean Connery, an almost untouchable villain with lofty and unrealistically ambitious goals, a beautiful lady who dies early on in the movie, the infamous Oddjob, and more!

What it also gave me, and I should have actually expected this, was an appreciation for the subtlety of the previous film, From Russia With Love. That's not to say that I still don't find fault with some of that movie's pacing among other things, but I do appreciate it more in hindsight now that I have seen Goldfinger.

What this picture does bring that the prior does not, however, is a very fast, but well, paced movie, ripe with action, intrigue, and (in my opinion) much more excitement. I feel safe to say that this was where the franchise really took off and figured out what it wanted to be.